Why blacks can't breathe
 

Because many of them have someone on their back.......

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/1...-folks-breathe

And golly gee, what did I say about legislation coming down the pike, and lawsuits getting ready to bubble to the surface over the star courts? Surprise, surprise, surprise.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/c...0acf144ef.html

Here is the pOST article..



Lawyers from St. Louis University, ArchCity Defenders and a law firm filed lawsuits earlier this week against seven St. Louis County municipalities, alleging they charge illegal fees in their municipal courts.

The defendants are the cities of Beverly Hills, Ferguson, Fenton, Jennings, Pine Lawn, Wellston and Velda City.

The lawsuits, filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court, seek class-action status. The suits ask the circuit court to decide whether the municipal court fees violate state law. They ask for an accounting of who paid fees and how much was paid, and demand reimbursement to defendants who were forced to pay fees to avoid jail time or warrants.

In the case against Pine Lawn, Danette White alleges a warrant was issued for her arrest about Nov. 21, 2013, and a bail of $250 was set. She claims she paid that bail plus a $35 warrant recall fee about Aug. 2.

The suit claims the fee was collected illegally.

Brian Krueger, Pine Lawn’s city administrator, said he investigated White’s claim on Tuesday and couldn’t find any evidence in municipal court records that White had paid a warrant recall fee.

“I’d like to see the receipt,” he said. If she could produce one, he said, he would have cause to look deeper at his city’s municipal court.

Paul Rost, attorney for Fenton, declined to comment until he had read the lawsuit. Stephanie Karr, lawyer for Ferguson, and Donnell Smith, lawyer for Velda City, said they had not seen the lawsuit. Representatives of the other municipalities could not immediately be reached for comment.

The lawsuits were filed by the same lawyers from St. Louis University and the nonprofit group ArchCity Defenders who have been criticizing municipal courts in St. Louis County for months, as well as lawyers with Campbell Law LLC in St. Louis.

A report by ArchCity Defenders on Aug. 14 blasted the area’s municipal court system for jailing clients who can’t afford to pay fines, for mistreating them in court and for blocking outsiders from seeing what goes on.

ArchCity Defenders criticized municipal courts in three cities — Bel-Ridge, Florissant and Ferguson — calling them “chronic offenders” and “prime examples of how these practices violate fundamental rights of the poor, undermine public confidence in the judicial system and create inefficiencies.”

Abuses by municipal courts have attracted greater scrutiny since the fatal shooting Aug. 9 of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer. The shooting set off protests that included demands to improve operations in police departments and municipal courts. The lawsuits come less than a week before a Ferguson Commission meeting scheduled for Monday to discuss predatory municipal court practices.

In October, Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich said that his office would audit at least 10 municipal courts from across the state over the next year — including Ferguson, Bella Villa, Pine Lawn and St. Ann — to make sure they are “about justice and not revenue.”

He said much of his focus would be on a state law capping traffic ticket income at 30 percent of a municipality’s general operating revenue and requiring anything more to be sent to the state for education.

Brendan Roediger, a law professor with St. Louis University and one of the plaintiff lawyers, said the lawsuits were part of a strategy to bring wider reforms to the municipal court system.

“Our goal is to stop cities from filling their coffers with illegal fees and from continuing to conduct for-profit policing,” Roediger said.

In the Ferguson lawsuit, plaintiff Darrick Reed claimed he paid the city a $50 fee to cancel an arrest warrant when he appeared in court to answer to the charge. According to his complaint, the fee is illegal in the state of Missouri and is charged “as a means of profiting from the issuance of traffic tickets and other violations.”

The practice is “detrimental to the community as a whole, as it increases incarceration rates, reduces faith in the court system, creates distrust by citizens of the court, and results in financial harm to the community,” the suit claims.

The suits also include a claim under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, the state’s consumer fraud statute, alleging the cities attempted to deceive defendants into paying the fees.

The lawyers said the seven suits were just the beginning; they expect to file lawsuits against other cities in St. Louis County.

WTF are you guys talking about? I heard Dr. Ben Carson on Fox saying it's a level playing field now.

Sheltiedave, does Ferguson and other areas around St. Louis County have red-light traffic cameras?
If so how much is the fee? I got hit up for $500 bucks for rolling on right here in Riverside County (Riverside CA).

Thanks Dave. That paywall is a bitch to get around at the St. Louis Post/Dispatch,

We have some automated cameras, but reaction has been mixed. The smaller municipalities don't like them, because they only get a portion of the fees, rather than 100%. And when you have to pay $250 for the bench warrant, $50 for the no show, and $150 for the ticket, it becomes unaffordable.

And the cops sit on the roads and just camp on the people who have tickets. When I mentioned that people had a hard time holding jobs because the cops liked to fuck with them, it is the truth. If you do the math, when you get lucky in Ferguson and find a full time, $8/hr job, you first have to pay the now $450 ticket fine before you can use the @$%$@ car. I walked with a friend who happens to be a cop, and the first 51 cars we ran in the Canfield complex had outstanding tickets from throughout St. Louis.

Being poor, being in certain municipalities, and having a target on your back is not a walk in the park, and knowing you will get pulled over every week you drive your car makes for a good deal of stress and belligerence. For many of them, if you can't find a job you can walk to, or on a bus route, forget about it.

That is a real horror story.

No wonder so many people hate the Cops.

Traffic cameras are all over the place around here too. But it ain't the cops who make these fucked up laws. Politicians will do all sorts of crazy shit to avoid raising taxes. Instead they come down on traffic offenders, impose hospitality taxes on hotel and rental car customers, and establish user fees for things that were once free.

Tom, it is only the tip of the iceberg. The Ferguson cops had the police station and the Quick Trip covered. The governor had the malls, libraries, and gas stations and post offices covered. No one covered the businesses, so when the riot and fires broke out, like I predicted - Mark that down as a FACT, Finn - it naturally occurred at the businesses. No law enforcement there, at all.

And the Governor still will not return the call from the Ferguson mayor asking for National Guard response from the night of the riot.

The Ferguson PD acts like a leech on the poorest people in Ferguson, and then is a no show when it comes to protecting the people and businesses they make a living not serving. They will soon be toast, as they currently are going through some interesting Federal interviews. There is a reason Brown's buddy did not have his interview transcripts released, and some of the other loose ends are now being chased down by really serious law enforcement types.

I was responding to all of shelties post, not about the cameras. Cameras don't profile people. They'll catch the Mayor in his Cadillac just as fast as they'll catch some poor schmuck in his $600 craigslist beater.

It's the Cops that deliberately profile and harass poor people that are the problem.

When the Cops act like this it's no small wonder that some poor people get so fed up with it that they act out. And then the Cops use that as an excuse to drop the hammer on them harder. It's baiting is what it is.

Actually the mayors decide whether to have the cameras or not, along with council members and/or city managers. In other words local municipalities.
You have to remember that a city or county rewards a contract to the camera companies, and I would be surprised if they themselves do not somehow get out of these tickets should they get caught on video in their own system.

I think it would be interesting to study traffic cams and the demographic populations of the communities that have them and to see if any bias is going on. From what I read, the amount of fines received by the Ferguson city from traffic violations went up 60 percent in the last 5 years. Do not know if cams had an impact there.

Finnbow is right. Voters can ditch the cams if they lean on the local governments hard enough. We did it in Murrieta.

I have to agree with this to a point. We have three nice vehicles and one rag. The rag is a 94 S10 that my wife hit a deer in at 80mph back in 2000. Smashed the front all to hell. But I only repaired it just enough so it could still be driveable ( had her hold the brakes while I hooked a chain around the radiator support and yanked it hard enough with the tractor to pull the right front corner of the fender off the tire, then replaced the smashed battery, broken thermostat housing, broken temp sending unit,HVAC cover, etc ). But the radiator I did not replace as it didn't leak when I pulled it from being wraped around the fan. I placed it on the ground and stomped it out straight as I could and put it back in. No leaks to this day, and it's my daily driver ever since she replaced it with a new one after the crash. We never get pulled over here where we live but hell everyone knows us, and my truck. But sometimes on road trips I'll get stopped and asked for the vehicle paperwork ( tags & insurance ) and my DL's. After all checks out well it's have a nice day.

The way I understand it is they find alot of people driving with warrants out on them, wrong tags, no insurance, revoked DL's, drugs on them or in the vehicle, drinking, etc, more-so in older vehicles than more costly ones. I can pick three nice vehicles to hop in and go, but I like my old truck and drive it. I've driven it to many states the way it is for the last 14 years.. including the AK Fest way up in MI. Ugly, but very trusty. And most important, the seat fits my ass well. I hate how our newer truck drives, even though it is mint.

The cops are often instructed to target old vehicles because the opportunities for revenue increase with pulling them over for so called fix-it tickets. In California this impacts more on those who cannot afford nice vehicles, and on minority communities. It leads to a perception of profiling. One of my Filipino friends was constantly getting pulled over because he drove a beat-up 1991 Honda Civic that eventually hit 300,000 miles.

While it may directly impact drivers of such jalopies, having such jalopies on the road with lousy brakes, tires, etc. is dangerous to everyone on the road. If you think such requirements are strict here, move to Germany and have your car inspected by TÜV.

Just don't ever withdraw a lot of money from the bank and then drive home because if the stop you there goes the money.

If they are suspicious enough to search for it. Of course a paranoid person might wonder if the teller or someone would tip them off....

Perhaps a taxi would be a good idea.


One just slides into the police state frame of mind....

It's the 'justice' system racket, screwing people for money. SOMEONE has to pay for early retirement/double dipping, and 'if you're in court you are guilty, so pay those fees boy'.

Here in Ohio there is no car inspection except for emissions. There are some pretty rough cars on the road :)

Pete

What about the people who cannot aford nicer cars? Think about that.
They are not driving jalopies because of choice. People get pulled over here for stuff like having one burnt out license plate lamp.


And public transportation in Europe is light years beyond us here in the States. I made many 100 mile round trips in that Honda car pooling to work everyday it was a safe vehicle and was driven to the junk yard when my friend got rid of it.

I think you are right. I would much rather the cops pull over the dangerous drivers I see all the time. My point is for some people an old car may be all that they have for their job, which is of course very important for them.

Agreed. This is also why I'm against raising gas taxes as an emissions ploy and strongly disliked the cash for clunkers program.

Pete

I'm all for the cameras myself.

I often find myself first in line at a stop light because I am one of the few drivers that actually stops when they are supposed to. But to do so I have to be real careful of the cars behind me so that I don't get rear ended because most drivers seem to think they have a GOD GIVEN RIGHT to blow through the light until at least 3-5 seconds after it turns.

And it's not poor people that are doing it either.

Some of the worst offenders are these Soccer Moms in their $40,000 SUV's.

It is the Hurry Hurry world we live in now. We had a lady move down here from a fast pace north east state that was always up peoples ass driving out the holler. Then one morning a farmer decided to start using the road to get hay from one farm to the next and there was no room to pass on the narrow road. After about a week of 1'st gear idling ( not throttled up ) slowly inching 3 miles every morning... that lady learned to leave early for work. She also got pissed and moved.

Actually Californians have been getting rid of them...the City of Riverside just ditched theirs after people were complaining about $500 dollar tickets for making rolling right on red turns. It was just too expensive for constituents.
I could see maybe $100 bucks for a right on red but not $500. Plus the company Redflex is Australian and people's hard earned money was going overseas as well.

Plus most cameras go up in urban areas, which tend to have a higher proportion of minorities than rural areas that do not have cameras. Should urban dwellers be more under Big Brother than rural ones?

It happens in rural areas too...

The article is from 2011, but the cameras are still there. The way it works now is everybody does 55MPH until they reach the camera, slow to 45MPH, then speed right back to 55MPH. It's real safe!:rolleyes:

"BLUFF CITY, Tenn. (AP) — Bluff City officials are enjoying the extra revenue from speed cameras that have generated more than a million dollars in a little over a year, but the windfall could be short-lived.

Between Jan. 1, 2010, and May 31, 2011, the cameras on U.S. Highway 11E in Piney Flats issued 39,923 citations to drivers, including now Gov. Bill Haslam, who was ticketed last year when he was caught speeding during his campaign.

The tickets netted the city nearly $1.6 million — an amount equal to eight times Bluff City's total property tax collections from the last fiscal year — during that period, according to the Bristol Herald Courier.

Read more: Bluff City officials enjoying speed camera revenue windfall | Kingsport Times-News http://www.timesnews.net/article/903...#ixzz3LbtGtC6u
Follow us: @timesnewsonline on Twitter | timesnews on Facebook"

http://www.timesnews.net/article/903...venue-windfall

If the rural folks lived with the same heavy hand of the law over them, there would be revolution, rather than some small riots and some burning buildings.

Local militias having bar b que fundraisers without collecting the sales tax? Take down a few, and if the treasurer refuses to cough up the money, strangle him and the board members to death.

I don't go in for emissions any more, over 70 and do under 5k miles per year.:)

LMAO!! But don't they still have to check the tailpipe? :eek:

Pete

Just because a car iis old it is not necessarily junk. Our two Impala LSs are 14 years old look like new and are kept in top shape.

Perhaps, but I don't really car about the income of the person who drives without one headlight or swerves into my lane because of bad breaks and tires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZDUEilS5M4

Sorry Pat, how could I resist :p

I take it you've never wired a broken tierod end up with a hanger then :D

Pete

"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world that evil doesn't exist."

Dave

Like, the Dems are pure as driven snow, looking out for the common guy?

Pete

Is the playing field level, Pete?

Carson is a damned liar.

Dave

Your deflections are getting tiresome, BTW. Just thought I'd let you know that.

Dave

Actually, he's the worst kind of liar. He hides behind the cross. "A wolf in sheeps clothing. ", as Mom used to say. Something I'm sure he'll burn in hell for.

But, then, that IS the trademark Republican method, isn't it?

Dave

No, but I've nigger rigged (that was just for you Pete) plenty of other stuff. I patched up a hole in my floorboard with a piece of sheet metal that I found. When my kids used to ride in the backseat of one clunker I had they had to be careful to keep their feet up because if they put them down they would burn them on the hot muffler. One time I stopped and picked up a muffler and tailpipe from the side of the road that had fallen off another vehicle and I put it on my own car because it was in better shape than the muffler I had on it.

This was back about 25 years ago when I was hard up after a nasty divorce.

I tell you it takes a lot of talent and ingenuity to nigger rig stuff.

Things are much better now.

Now when my car needs work I take it to the shop and say "Fix It" and hand them my Mastercard just like a white person.

The Democrats have their faults, but the worst Democrat is better than the best Republican.

That's not what she said. :D

"Worst Republican Better than Best Democrat, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin tonight said on Hannity."

Go feast yourself. ;)

http://us4palin.com/worst-republican/